Microsoft Word - The Australian Journal of Construction Economics and Building [Vol8, No1].doc


 

Editorial 
 

 
Associate Professor 
David Baccarini 

 
Associate Professor 
Peter Davis 

 

Welcome to the first issue for 2008 of the Australasian Journal 
of Construction Economics and Building. The Department of 
Construction Management at Curtin University of Technology is 
delighted to be the host of this year’s issues. The variety of 
papers this Issue reflect the diverse range of problems and 
challenges facing the construction industry. 

The first paper by Bee-Lan Oo* Derek S. Drew and Hing-Po Lo 
investigates contractors’ decision to bid behaviour according to 
market conditions and number of bidders, within the Australia, 
Hong Kong and Singapore construction market. This study 
provides evidence that contractors’ decision to bid behaviour 
varies in different market environments and ‘bid’ responses 
decrease as the number of bidders increases. 

Lindsay Castell provides an extensive literature review 
regarding the extent and nature of building access for the 
intellectually disabled in Australia. This paper uses a 
combination of the knowledge gained from previous wayfinding 
studies and literature describing general problems faced by 
those with intellectual disability to create a list of difficulties, 
suggested solutions associated cost implications and benefits in 
providing the required access.  

Rochelle Slater and Antony Radford explore the Australian 
building industry’s perceptions of the relationships between 
architects’ provision of design documentation and the 
constructability, programming and cost control of major projects.  
Some initiatives are proposed that aim to improve the 
professional understanding of these issues through integration 
within the everyday practices of architects and contractors and 
through a higher profile in tertiary education programs. 

Jie Li and Patrick X W Zou develop an assessment framework 
for risks associated with Public-Private Partnership projects 
using fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (AHP) followed by an 
illustrative example where the data was obtained from survey 
questionnaires. The paper concludes that risks associated in 
PPP infrastructure projects are unique and therefore it is 
beneficial to classify them from project life cycle perspectives, 
and the proposed fuzzy AHP method is suitable for the 
assessment of these risks.  

Marcus Towner and David Baccarini’s paper deals with a 
ubiquitous process within the construction projects - pricing for 
risk in competitive tenders by construction contractors. The past 
decade has witnessed a developing maturity and awareness of 
risk management and this paper adds to our understanding in 
this area 

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